How Ryan Works

I draw on Person-Centred Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Narrative Therapy, and my experiences as a 3x stroke survivor.

 

Person Centred Therapy

At the heart of my work is a person-centred approach. I believe that you are the expert in your own life, and my role is to walk alongside you with empathy, respect, and genuine curiosity. After a stroke or acquiring disability, many people feel that control over their body, identity, and future has been taken away. Person-centred therapy helps restore a sense of agency by creating a safe space where you are deeply heard, understood, and valued — not defined by diagnosis or impairment.

In our sessions, we’ll focus on building a trusting therapeutic relationship where you can explore your experiences at your own pace. Together, we’ll work to clarify what matters most to you now, honouring both the losses you’ve experienced and the strengths you still carry. This approach supports emotional safety, self-compassion, and confidence — essential foundations for navigating rehabilitation, adjustment, and rebuilding a meaningful life.

 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is particularly well suited to people living with chronic pain, fatigue, disability, and ongoing uncertainty. After stroke/acquiring disability many challenges cannot simply be “fixed,” and fighting against reality can increase suffering. ACT helps you learn how to relate differently to difficult thoughts, emotions, and physical limitations, so they no longer dominate your life.

In my work, I use ACT to help clients develop psychological flexibility — the ability to stay present, make room for what’s hard, and still take steps toward a life guided by personal values. While you continue to work hard on your physical recovery and rehabilitation with your health team, our focus in therapy is on supporting your emotional and psychological wellbeing along the way. Rather than asking you to give up on improvement or “just accept” limitations, we explore how to live meaningfully and fully in the present, even as you strive for change. This may involve learning skills to unhook from unhelpful thought patterns, cultivating self-kindness during setbacks, and reconnecting with purpose, identity, and what gives life meaning after disability.

 

Narrative Therapy

Stroke and acquired disability can dramatically reshape the story you tell about yourself. Many people find their identity becomes overshadowed by loss, limitation, or what they can no longer do. Narrative therapy offers a way to gently examine these stories and create space for alternative narratives that better reflect your resilience, courage, and complexity.

In therapy, we’ll explore how your experiences have shaped your life story — while also identifying the strengths, values, and survival skills that may have been overlooked. I work with clients to separate themselves from the problem, recognising that you are not your injury or diagnosis. Together, we re-author a narrative that honours grief and struggle while also making room for hope, growth, and new possibilities for living well after stroke or disability.

 

How These Approaches Come Together

I don’t see rehabilitation as purely physical, or recovery as necessarily returning to who you were before. My approach integrates person-centred therapy, ACT, and narrative therapy to support the whole person — emotionally, psychologically, and socially. Drawing on my lived experience as a stroke survivor and my background in physiotherapy and rehabilitation, I understand both the clinical and deeply human sides of recovery.

Together, we’ll explore ways to adjust, rebuild confidence, process grief and identity changes, and move toward a life that feels meaningful and fulfilling — even if it looks different from what you once imagined.

 

Thankyou for taking the time to learn about my approach to helping others.  Contact me for more information or to arrange a session.

– Ryan Ogden

GradDip. Counselling
MA Physiotherapy Studies
GradDip. Exercise Rehabilitation
B.Sc. Human Movement